Working more than 20 hours a week hurts students' math and science studies
Kusum Singh, a professor in educational leadership and policy studies, questions the belief that part-time jobs benefit high school students. Her research suggests that students who work more than 20 hours per week take fewer math and science courses. Those students also perform more poorly on tests in those subjects than students who work fewer hours.
This unusually large study looked at more than 26,000 sophomores and seniors from about 1,000 high schools nationwide. It examined the impact part-time work had on students' course-taking and their achievement on math and science standardized tests. Even when socioeconomic status and previous educational achievement were taken into account, jobs still had a "significant negative effect" on course work and achievement in math and science.
"The first 15 hours of work didn't seem to matter," says Singh. "But after that, when students are working 20 hours or more, it starts interfering with school performance."
The number of high school students holding part-time jobs has risen steadily over the past two decades. The United States is one of the few industrialized nations where adolescents commonly both work and attend school. American students' performance on science and math tests has lagged compared with that of other countries, an often-cited concern for education policymakers.
Some research suggests that when a high percentage of students at a school hold part-time jobs, the school's teaching and learning atmosphere shifts because teachers begin to lower their expectations for student performance.
Singh's research was published in the November/December 2000 issue of the Journal of Educational Research.
- Jean Elliott
College of Human Resources and EducationContent of this column may be reused so long as credit is given to Virginia Tech and the researchers.